DIY 1 and 2 inch foam pads

Red Lehr

Red Lehr

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Looking at the price of Flex 1 and 2 inch foam pads,I was wondering if anyone out there has ever cut down one of their pads,(ie. LC CCS pad) and made their own small pads to do intricate work ? With a 1 inch pad being almost as expensive as a 6 inch pad,I thought it would be worth a try.
I cut a circle as best I could out of a LC CCS orange pad,I trimmed off some of the the face of the pad so it wasn't too thick. The pad is very crude looking,and I'm sure there is a better way to cut and shape the pad. I used the P E8 Flex 1" backing pad and Menz. 400,polishing speed set at 2. I scuffed up my old hood with 3000 grit paper and tried it out. You can see the dull scuffed side and the polished side was swirl free. No sun today so the pics don't do justice. I'm sure in a pinch it might work.....

View attachment 50092View attachment 50093
 
I haven't but that's a great idea.
Thanks
 
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The problem is at the rpm's you will be running at you better be able able to get them perfectly round and balanced. Good luck with that, let us know how it turns out.
 
custmsprty said:
The problem is at the rpm's you will be running at you better be able able to get them perfectly round and balanced. Good luck with that, let us know how it turns out.
Click to expand...
View attachment 50094
Here is another pic of the job done. The scuffed side was done with 3000 grit paper. I made 6 section passes with the Flex PE8 on speed 2 setting. For a crudely circle it did a swirl free job. Now to find a way to cut perfect circles,THEN, cut the face of the pad down evenly.......I love a challenge...View attachment 50100
Like I said, it was a crude cutting job, but I'll keep you posted when we come up with what we think will work for cutting pads in a perfect circle.
 
I have an idea as to how you could cut the pad. Get a cookie cutter in the size that you want and just a regular propane torch. Heat the cookie cutter and it "should" make a clean cut.
 
Better yet, get a piece of steel pipe in the diameter you want,file down the inner or outer edge to make it somewhat sharp,place it over the larger foam pad and hit it with a hammer. Viola,home made pad punch. Just put wood under the foam before punching.
 
I have done this a year ago. I placed 7" cutting foam Pad on a 3.5" backing plate and used a jigsaw blade to cut the pad perfectly round....(by hand). This works well with my drill for headlights.
 
Nice, there is a better way to cut prob. I've been meaning to get a da adapter/extension rotary for my da, alot of ppl say not to but you only need so much in certain areas.
 
Personally, anything intricate enough to require a 1 or 2 inch pad I'll just do by hand. But then again, I'm not doing this as my everyday job.
 
Whitewater25 said:
Better yet, get a piece of steel pipe in the diameter you want,file down the inner or outer edge to make it somewhat sharp,place it over the larger foam pad and hit it with a hammer. Viola,home made pad punch. Just put wood under the foam before punching.
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That is exactly what I came up with. I have some thinner conduit that I will try this out on. My guess would be ,what ever you cut the pad with has to cut relatively smooth so you don't "rip" the pad. Getting a taper to the pad might be a little tougher though....More to come.
 
Well, I found a piece of 1 3/4", thin wall pipe and sharpened the outside edge,then I took a small belt grinder and ground off a little on the inside. Now I have a sharp ,round circle to cut with, and BTW, it helps if the edge on the pipe is just a little rough. It seems to cut better with a minute amount of serration on the cutting edge.View attachment 50129

Standing the pipe perpendicular on top of the pad,I started turning the pipe in circles until the pipe cut through the entire pad.View attachment 50132

Now having a meatpacking plant has it's advantages when it comes to sharpening tools,and I trimmed the new small pad down to the thickness I wanted by slicing the pad on an old meat slicer until the desired thickness was reached.View attachment 50130

I'm sure you could do this with any sized conduit or thin pipe.View attachment 50131
 
Whitewater25 said:
Better yet, get a piece of steel pipe in the diameter you want,file down the inner or outer edge to make it somewhat sharp,place it over the larger foam pad and hit it with a hammer. Viola,home made pad punch. Just put wood under the foam before punching.
Click to expand...

Have you done this yet ??? What about the angle Flex has for compression, how could you get it ??
 
I have not tried this on the foam pads yet. I use a similar method to cut leather drag washers for fishing reels & figured it would work on the foam pads as well. I do not think you will get a taper to them when cutting,it will be a straight cut. I will try it out next time I need small,pads for my PE-8.
 
DetailTrail said:
Have you done this yet ??? What about the angle Flex has for compression, how could you get it ??
Click to expand...

I did not try the hammer method,but I'll give it a whirl !
As far as the angle for compression,I really don't see a way to cut the pad using the pipe method...I did try to cut an angle on the small pad using my meat slicer by rolling it with the blade,but it just doesn't do a smooth job,Lol
 
I took some 4 inch foam pads over to a friend's shop and tried two different methods.
First I chucked the post on the backing place into a lathe and at only 300rpm I cut the pad with a single sided razor blade clamped in a steady rest. Then just slowly turned the traverse until it had cut all the way through. Did a pretty clean job of cutting.
The next method worked even better but it sure was messy. I clamped my rotary polisher to the arm on a belt sander. Spun up the rotary then pressed the pad into the belt sander. This was not some little carpenters sander, but a four inch wide 72 inch long industrial belt sander used to clean up the welds on exhaust systems. It did the nicest job yet. But I looked like I had been standing in a foam snowstorm.
 
This to me is a great idea, those pads look perfect.
Here is my atempt
Flex pad on top
faae148701e3b94a061311c65f49070c.jpg


sent from me
 
Red Lehr said:
Looking at the price of Flex 1 and 2 inch foam pads,I was wondering if anyone out there has ever cut down one of their pads,(ie. LC CCS pad) and made their own small pads to do intricate work ? With a 1 inch pad being almost as expensive as a 6 inch pad,I thought it would be worth a try.
I cut a circle as best I could out of a LC CCS orange pad,I trimmed off some of the the face of the pad so it wasn't too thick. The pad is very crude looking,and I'm sure there is a better way to cut and shape the pad. I used the P E8 Flex 1" backing pad and Menz. 400,polishing speed set at 2. I scuffed up my old hood with 3000 grit paper and tried it out. You can see the dull scuffed side and the polished side was swirl free. No sun today so the pics don't do justice. I'm sure in a pinch it might work.....

View attachment 50092View attachment 50093
Click to expand...

LOL you guys are kill'n me. Put the pad you want to cut down on the smaller base plate. For example a 4" pad on a 2" base plate. Hold a razor blade knife up to the pad at an angle and bring the pad up to speed. Obviously you need a rotary not a DA. When you get the hang of it the spine of the knife will rest on the outside of the base pad and you'll get a perfect circle is 2 seconds.

If you run out of pads this is a McGiver technique to keep you in the game otherwise just buy the right size you need. Cheaper in the long run.
 
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